Tuesday, January 6, 2009 (No. 42)
Wise Gifts
Today is the traditional solemn feast day of the Epiphany of the Lord. It celebrates the visit of the magi who followed the star from the east to see the “newborn king of the Jews” in Bethlehem. It also marks the twelfth and final day of Christmas.
The gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh in the beginning of His life are often associated with the threefold mission of Jesus Christ as priest, prophet, and king, which in turn, as Dorothy Day observes below, is intimately connected with the end of His life.
In Christ’s life there were always a few who made up for the neglect of the crowd. The shepherds did it; their hurrying to the crib atoned for the people who would flee from Christ. The wise men did it; their journey across the world made up for those who refused to stir one hand’s breadth from the routine of their lives to go to Christ. Even the gifts the wise men brought have in themselves an obscure recompense and atonement for what would follow later in this Child’s life. For they brought gold, the king’s emblem, to make up for the crown of thorns that he would wear; they offered incense, the symbol of praise, to make up for the mockery and the spitting; they gave him myrrh, to heal and soothe, and he was wounded from head to foot and no one bathed his wounds. The women at the foot of the cross did it too, making up for the crowd who stood by and sneered.
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me…
Epiphany means manifestation of the divine, revelation, sudden insight, recognition. How many people are troubled because God does not show himself in the way they expect?
Our Lady of Mercy, pray for us.
